Pulling you inside its pages, Dear Edward invites you to become not just a fly on the wall, but to be a part of its existence – to feel the protagonist’s pain as he navigates being the sole survivor of a terrible accident. To experience grief, to re-navigate yourself in a new world, and to feel a depth of mourning – not just for loved ones, but for who you once were.
The sole survivor of a plane crash, 12-year-old Edward’s story may seem at first far-fetched, but in reality it has more than just a pinch of truth. For as the author, Ann Napolitano, mentions in her acknowledgments, there was indeed a young boy who in 2010 was the sole survivor of a terrible plane crash (Afriqiyah Airways Flight 711), losing his family and finding himself now under the care of his aunt and uncle. In Dear Edward, Napolitano carefully and respectfully imagines what this new reality would be like for the boy – finding himself stuck between being a child in years, to not quite being an adult.
The protagonist of the book; Eddie or Edward – the change in name reflecting the alteration of his life – beautifully conveys the pain of losing loved ones, and the avoidance of acknowledging it;
“He tries to stay away from thoughts and emotions, as if they’re furniture he can skirt past in a room”
It’s this distancing that makes Edward that much more relatable, for he handles everything else with far more decorum than I, or possibly anyone would – but inwardly he’s keeping himself balled-up tight – his stress, worries and loss kept quiet and yet its’ clear he’s not handling it, but the thing is, how do you handle it? This question being a central theme to the story, not just for Edward but for those around him – whose lives have also been upended in more ways than one.
All this tragedy might sound too much, however Napolitano stays on just the right side of its intensity by having the chapters split between the aftermath of the plane crash, to the minutes and hours leading up to it. This also has a lovely play with the dynamics of time – for as current day Edward moves forward and away in time from the crash, so to do we move closer to when it happened – almost as though he’s beginning to face that day’s events.
For the chapters set on the plane, Napolitano looks not just at Edward and his family, but at a range of passengers and crew as they go about their day-to-day lives, to the reasons as to why they were on that plane; running away or to something; health; money; moving; job change; romance; anxiety for the future; regrets about the past; to hopes and aspirations. Although you know very early on that everyone has died, as you increasingly read the scenes in which they’re still alive, you wish more and more for a sudden change in its ending; for these people aren’t numbers that make a 191 dead passengers, but are living breathing individuals both with flaws and strengths – building a greater connection of empathy to the reader.
This interchanging between narratives adds a great deal of suspense to the book, for even though you know a catastrophic event is going to happen, you don’t know the details. It’s therefore easy to find yourself racing between the tight-chested constrictions of Edward’s grief, to the tenterhooks of being on the plane – does the crash happen now? What causes it? How did the characters react? Were they brave? Full of fear? Or with no time to even know it was happening? Despite these hidden questions, the book isn’t at all macabre, and as the chapters break between past and present you feel as though the passengers are still alive and travelling with Edward on his journey – something I don’t believe was accidental.
When Edward’s grief almost tips the book into being too much, Napolitano pulls it back with a discovery of letters – ones that lead Edward into exploring the lives of others on the plane, and maybe even a secret much closer to home. Despite this broadening of the story, it’s never fully explored, possibly because there’s too many characters to get into all the details. But it could also be a clever writing tool, with not one specific passenger being more or less important than another – they’re lives equally valued.
Dear Edward avoids being cliched and unrealistic, (although the epilogue is a little too sickly sweet for me), by focusing instead on Edward’s emotions, the everyday thoughts of the passengers, and a connection of siblings – as the sole survivor ages beyond the years of his older brother.
Book Edition Information:
Publisher: Penguin
Cover Image: Helen Crawford-White
Presented Edition: 2020 Kindle Edition
